Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Well the title kind of says it all. Elijah had been complaining that I never make him anything. Mind you I just finished a pirate quilt that I'll posts pictures of another day and two Birthday gifts for his friends but I never make him anything. So I asked what he wanted and the above are the result. The Mario fabric is from a pair of men's pj pants. I had 1/2 yard of the red so not enough for a shirt front and this crazy supper stretchytubular rib knit fro Chez Ame that I think was really just supposed to be ribbing so that's how the shirt got so crazy. Then I wanted them to be as Mario filled as possible so I put lots of extra detail. I even used the string from the pj pants to make the draw string. Oh and the patterns are the Oliver and S Sandbox pants and a curved raglan from Ottobre. Never been to the otto site you should go check it out. Here it is. http://www.ottobredesign.com/

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

I guess I should begin by saying that if you haven't noticed I've decided to highlight my sewing projects on my blog a lot more. I like to be able to show off and talk about the things that I make and figured that my blog was a good place to do it. Also blogger seems to have a mind of its own when it uploads my pictures and I don't care to figure out why so they are rarely in order.

These are the last two sets I made for Emily. They are from the Oliver and S sailboat pants pattern. At first I was put off by this pattern brand as they are more expensive then most but I Santa hooked me up with the sandbox pants for Christmas and I was hooked. Her directions are so good and so straightforward. You just start at the beginning follow the steps and there you have it. They are also all very Baby Gap in my opinions which is fun for me. I have a lot of Euro patterns which are also fun but very boutique like while this one just looks like great play clothes to me. I did modify the sleeves bc they were long which maybe is OK in New York where the lady that designs them lives but won't work for spring/summer in NC. I made the pink set first and just shortened the sleeves but for the blue set I made them fluffier and added elastic. Anyways blah blah blah highly recommend the pattern. I have two more that I'm going to try soon but I have some other things to finish first.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Didn't feel like doing a bunch of pictures of this but I am still quite pleased with it. Its made all out of scrap fabric and other things that were sitting around my sewing room plus the pattern was not a smocking pattern so I had to modify it myself. Its not for Emily though its getting mailed off to the baby swap. Part of me wants to do one more thing bc I didn't do any boy things but I'm working on some things for my kids plus several gifts so I really don't have time.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Friday, April 10, 2009

I think I was so unsure about the watermelon stuff bc it was soooooo bright/loud. For some reason I'm finding myself drawn to more muted colors and softer prints lately. My aim here was to make Emily a smocked sundress to play in. Yes its fancy to play in I guess but its short enough for her to walk easily which was the big goal. She is going to be one well dressed little girl this summer. Many of her hand me downs are still too big so darn it all mommy will just have to make lots of clothes. I've got some more things in the works for her and the baby swap also a quilt for Elijah but I'm starting to look more seriously into opening a little Etsy shop. What do you think? I really can't decide. Selling my work would be a huge step for me. I have no idea how I would value it. Or how much time I would really want to put into selling. Plus I've got so many projects I want to try. Oh well we'll see what happens. If you have an opinion feel free to share it though.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

This is Emily engaging in one of her new favorite activities. She is looking at one of my sewing books pointing at the pictures saying "dess". She also enjoys the doll making book that I haven't gotten brave enough to try anything out of yet. She likes the "babies" she sees in it. I'm glad she likes the stuff I make her and looking at the pretty pictures though.

Monday, April 6, 2009

I bought all this watermelon fabric last year not long after I started sewing again. At the time I was really interested in having a "stash" of fabric as many of the ladies on the sewing mamas board do and this just seemed like perfect fabric plus the green was almost gone so I got a discount on it. I prewashed it and put it on the shelf in the sewing room where it sat and sat and sat. I'm not sure why but it never really spoke to me and I kept buying other fabrics instead. It probably doesn't help that green is not exactly Emily's best color or that it is loud loud loud in person. Well time passed and one of my online friends wrote a ruffle pants tutorial to make pants similar to some on chasing fireflies and these were the only two coordinating fabrics I had so I figured rather then buy new fabric to try out the pattern I'd make it with these. Well I think the fabric was mad at me for letting it sit bc the whole outfit was a comedy of errors. The top ruffle is all croaked, my machine tried to eat part of the shirt, I cut the contrast band too small for the shirt and had to add some pleats, and then the rise on the pants was way too low and I had to add a knit band at the top. All that said I still can't decide if I like this outfit or not but she wore it to the park yesterday and got lots of compliments. Someone even asked where I bought it. I'm not sure if I will make the pants again. If I do they will be shorter, out of more muted or even solid fabric, and I will buy a rolled hem foot first (that would be a great birthday gift it your wondering what to get me).

OK outfit two is for the baby swap. I got a new pattern and couldn't decide if Emily was a 1 or a 2 in it so I made a 1 out of the rest of the watermelon fabric to test out the size. I think it came out quite well. It is my first fully lined garment and that is a different experience in sewing. I also cut the smocking insert too short but thankfully it worked. The smocking was my first time doing overlay smocking and I have to say was a bit blindness inducing but I love the effect. Hopefully whomever gets this in their box will like it.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

I'm participating in my fist sewing swap over on sewing mamas. They do them all the time but I have been way to nervous to participate. See most of the stuff I make is less then perfect and while I love giving things to friends and the certainly seem pleased with my products giving your stuff to other people who sew and getting something in return is just plain scary. I finally decided to bite the bullet and try though as this was a swap for people who had never swapped before. I had a great time making everything and shipped my box this past week. I'm very excited to see what comes my way. It really is a neat process. Everything gets mailed to the sorter in MN and then she sorts it all and sends it back out.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

These are pictures of Emily modeling her Easter dress. It has coordinatingpantaloons but she was in no mood. I wanted to go ahead a put of pictures though since I may not get her in it again until Easter Sunday. It was inspired by a dress that Dawn at Olabelth did for her daughter. Her blog is in my list that I visit. Oh and thankfully she has grown a bit. I modified a Simplicity pattern as I am just not ready to do things from scratch and she is even too little for a 1/2. I bought the fabric last year and only bought a yard of each so that was a little limiting as well. I made both kids Easter outfits so hopefully they will let me get some good pictures or maybe it will stop raining for long enough to go over to the pond and take pictures.